LLUVEIA!!!!!!! (rain)

This week was all about rain, rain, rain. Seriously, it was the greatest thing ever. It never rains this much in the middle of summer. It’s great because it gets so, so, so hot and then it just dumps buckets and buckets of rain. People always feel bad for us out in the rain, so we get lots of lessons.... and it’s just so nice when it’s raining. After it rains is the worst. It gets so, so, so hot, so we pray that it will keep raining till the sun goes down. ha One night, I think it was New Year’s -ya it was because we had to be home early, a huge storm came out of nowhere and there was huge winds and rain pounding down. Luckily we were at a member’s house and when we went home it was so calm and nice outside. It’s so weird, aha, one of the best parts of the rain is the rainbows!!! I saw the biggest rainbow yesterday. It was a double rainbow. I took some pictures, but it doesn’t do it justice. It was so beautiful. Ok, sorry Nan, haha. You said Blake’s letters were just weather reports, but the weather this week has just been AMAZING for the middle of summer. When it wasn’t raining, though, it was really, really, really hot. I always think it can’t get hotter than this - and it does. The amazing thing is when you are in the shade it’s really not that bad. It’s just the sun that kills you. It beats down so hard, and almost everyone’s home is completely shaded. When we are really hot it just motivates us to find someone to teach so we can sit down and get some water and be in the shade. 

I am going to start with the funny thing that happened because it was so awful and funny at the same time. My stomach was hurting because I ate too much at a member’s house and it was really, really hot so I asked Hermana Escobar if we could take a little break. She was like, where? We were on a dirt road with no benches or anything. I saw this old well a little off the road so I start trekking through this marshland over to it. As I sit down in an exhausted huff, I start to feel fire and warmth consuming my foot. As I look down, I realize I have literally stepped on a huge ant hill and my whole foot was completely covered in ants biting me. I started screaming and running around and splashing in the water. There was nothing you could do. If you wipe it with your hand they are on your hand. Hermana Escobar was yelling “What’s the matter with you???” When she realized, because they were biting her too, she started saying “take off your shoes”. So I did and I am running all over trying to get these stupid little satans off me. Aw, it was terrible. Needless to say, I guess that’s what I get for being lazy. I wish I could send you the pic of my legs after that they were covered in little red dots. It’s a mission rule that we can’t send wound pictures home. They don’t want you to worry. It’s really not bad now. They just itch like a mosquito bite, but really, it was just so embarrassing because the family we had just been visiting saw the whole thing and were laughing from the house. Well, I am not sure if they were laughing, I think they were generally concerned, but when we told them later what happened they were laughing pretty hard. 

This week was kind of difficult because, I don’t know about you guys, but the New Year here is kind of about getting drunk and blasting Michael Jackson, haahaha. If the people weren’t drunk they weren’t home. We made great plans this week to visit people with members and at every appointment the people weren’t home. It was so hard. The worst one was Justina, our golden investigator. We have to have a member because, like I told you, she has been accepting the missionaries for a few months now and has been taught everything, but we recently discovered she doesn’t know very much Spanish. haha She is so funny. So we trekked through the rain to her far-away house twice this week, both with members, and the first time she wasn’t home. The second the member bailed on us. The picture of me in the huge puddle is right outside her house. It was the only way to get to her so we took off our shoes and trekked it. This time she was home, but we didn’t have a member, so it was a long 30 min of confusion and constantly us and her saying ¿¿¿¿ENTIENDE???? (understand). haha But I think she felt the spirit and she kissed us before we left and we arranged to pick her up the next day for church.

This gets us to miracle number one of the week, well number one that I am sharing. We have millions every day. Anyway, we were supposed to be at Roma 1 at 6 because the elders had a baptism. This is way far away because our building is under construction, we were already far away because we were at Justina’s house. So we make it to our building and we go about two more blocks and we are still probably 30 min from the chapel by foot and we see the president’s son driving by. I practically jumped on the hood. haha He happened to be caring the guest of honor and the whole family, including his grandma. So we were able to get in and get a ride. I was practically crying. I was so happy, it was one of the hottest days. 

This was my first baptism in the mission. I know we didn’t convert him but it still was great. I think of our district like a little team, so when he entered the water, he is like 10, I was crying so bad. He was so tiny and cute and excited and it reminded me I hadn’t been to a baptism in a long time. I kept thinking the last baptism I was at was Ethan’s, which made me cry and miss him. But as I am writing this, I realized I went to Sadie’s baptism, my cousin on Charlsie’s side, but oh well. It still had been a long time. It was beautiful and it reminded me why I am here. 

So this gets us to Domingo (Sunday). Oh man, it was so tough. The president’s son was supposed to take us to get Justina, but I guess he slept in. So we were frantically trying to get someone to take us, but it’s hard because no one knows where she lives. So we have to go with them and most people don’t have a car, they only have a moto. We aren’t allowed to ride them. So all through church I just felt sick because I knew Justina was just sitting at home wondering why we didn’t come. All through lunch I kept thinking - we should go see her. But we don’t have a lot of time on Sunday and her house is about a 40 min walk from our house. So we decided to visit her son who lives just two streets over from where we ate lunch and guess who was visiting her son, JUSTINA!!! Miracle number 2000000000000. ah We were so happy, but also felt terrible because the first thing she said was “Why didn’t you come?”!!! “I was all ready to go”. She said she didn’t believe that we wouldn’t come, so she asked her neighbor if she had missed us. I wanted to curl up and die. I felt so bad. We kept apologizing and telling her we felt so bad, but there was little we could do. We don’t have a car and she is too old to walk it all herself. But we had a great lesson and I took a pic with her for you guys to see. She is so sweet. She is like my grandma, haha, even if she doesn’t know what I am saying. We were teaching her about the Holy Ghost. I told her sometimes I feel bad and the Holy Ghost helps me feel better. She started laughing and said you feel bad because you don’t know anything. haha Then Hermana Escobar felt bad she was making fun of me, so she said “No, like if you do bad on a test or have family problems, sometimes you feel bad.” She was like “What, you had an exam yesterday and you did bad. What’s going on with your family?” ugh We really need a member when we teach her, haha. Also her son, we taught her son’s wife a week ago and then we visited Justina. Her son’s wife, Nina, told Justina that we believe God is living in America right now.... we were like WHAT!! We clarified it all to Justina, but we still haven’t found Nina to explain that to her. hahah Miscommunication happens when you don’t speak Guadani, shoot!! But one of our New Year’s goals is to learn a prayer in Guadani for Justina so please pray for me because, seriously, that language is psycho. 

Lots of love from Paraguay!!!!!!!!!!!
Hermana Ball

This is our prime investigator, Justina.
She was so excited when I told her I wanted a picture with her.

Getting ready to make our trek the 4 blocks in the rain to the bus stop.
Seriously, this is the coldest I have been since getting here to Paraguay.

Trying to save our house from the rain.

On our way to the navidad activity at 3 am, waiting on the Elders, as usual

Papa Noel Came

Like I said, it rained A LOT

IT RAINED LOTS THIS WEEK

This is Pedro Juan, a new convert and also minas activo 

This rain came from nowhere.  This is outside our house.
 Literally 10 minutes before this it was so hot and sunny

We made empanadas this week. They were really good.

 

PS: About the Church Mail Pouch

So, I keep forgetting to say that you can't use the church mail pouch system for MY mission. I sent two letters that way and they came back. They said, get this, "only the North mission has it," I hate those guys. So, sorry to disappoint, ugh I was so bugged. If you get the letters back you have sent this way, just send them with another letter through regular mail in an envelope. Sorry, I keep forgetting.

Feliz Ano Nuevo!!!!!! written December 29, 2014



With my presents. Thanks so much for the blanket, Charlsie.  I love it.

Hermana Escobar and her presents.  She was so happy.

Man I can’t believe how fast time flies! I am going to go in order of how the week went. Monday we had our lesson with Andrea’s parents and the whole family to ask if her sisters could be baptized. Things went great. Everything went the way we practiced except the part where the papa said yes.... It was really hard. The whole walk home I felt a little discouraged but Hermana Escobar did so good. In the lesson we gave him a libro de mormon and asked him to read it and pray about his decision. He said he wouldn’t pray because he had already made his decision but he would read because he is curious about our church. He had lots of questions and I feel like we answered them well.

That night we had some guests at our house, the other sisters in our zone live far from the terminal, so they stayed with us to get up at 1 to go to the mission Christmas party. It was so fun. We didn’t do much sleeping. We walked to the terminal with the elders, it was way fun. The party was in Ita. It was a 3 hour bus ride. It was so good seeing my batch again and talking to them! It was basically like a youth conference: we played soccer and capture the flag and volley ball and that sponge game where you get all wet. It was great. I met lots of Hermanas. It was fun wondering who will be my comp someday. Lots of people thought I was a Latin. It was great until they heard me talk and then they would say “where are you from” and then they would say “WHY ARE YOU SO BROWN!!” haha I can’t wait till the day my Spanish will fool them. We didn’t get home this day until 9. It was way exhausting and we had just recovered from going to Asuncion so it messed up our sleep schedule all over again. ugh But it was great. We also had a white elephant. I got chocolate milk mix and we watched the Christmas devotional, but it was in Spanish and I was so tired. I kind of just slept on Hermana Escobar’s shoulder the whole time. We also watched David Archoleta’s song with the Piano Guys. That was way cool and we had a slide show of all the baptisms in our mission this year. I cried. I can’t wait till I have some up there!!!

Christmas Eve we had lunch with the Roma president’s family. It was way good and we didn’t really have much other success that day. Our study took lots of the day and then we went to a member’s house that night, the same one I went to call you guys. We were planning to act out the nativity with them because Hermana Escobar had never really heard of it soo we figured they hadn’t. But then we got a call saying we had to be home by 7:30 because it’s dangerous. ugh So we took them a dessert and gave them the little nativity puzzle Charlsie sent. We told them that the piece with Jesus was in the card and that they could do the puzzle with their kids and talk about Christmas without Christ is incomplete. They loved it so much. I think the dad cried a little, he loved it so much. Then we had to literally run 10 blocks home because we wanted to be obedient. We were 2 min late but we were ok.

Hermana Escobar and I made some special food and sang every Christmas hymn. Then we read the whole Christmas story in the scriptures. She had never done that before on Christmas, and we watched The Lamb of God, it was great. We also had a popcorn fight, which felt like snow. hah I tried to make Christmas really special for Hermana because she was telling me she has never really gotten a present before and it’s really just always about food. It was so fun playing Santa and putting out all the presents I got her. Mostly it was my stuff, I gave her haha like a sweater and a clip she loves of mine, but she was so grateful. Christmas morning we just opened presents and talked and then we had study and weekly planning and then I got to call you. When I think about it I wanna cry because it was so great seeing all of you in the moment. I was just too happy to be anything else. So sorry if I didn’t seem excited to see you all. I was. It was so great.

After we talked we taught some way amazing lessons and we had a little miracle. Well, were walking and I remembered we had said we would go see Justina’s son that day. His wife had said “Oh that’s Christmas and my birthday but yah, we would love you to come.” Once we remembered that we ran there and when we arrived Justina was there and we haven’t been able to find her so it was great!!!!

That night my district leader challenged me not to speak any English on Viernes (Friday) and I did it!!! I have never done so well. It was great. That night when he called he kept saying “Hermana your Spanish is so much better”. Sunday I commented in church like 3 times and he said after “that was so great”. I know it’s a direct blessing from your sacrifice. So now we are trying to go a whole week, although I haven’t been too good today. I need to be better but it was so great. He is such an inspired leader. We found out he isn’t being transferred so we are really happy!!! One elder was, but his comp is training so we are getting someone newer than me!!!! I am stoked! 

Anything I said on Christmas or in my letters that seems creepy, or I don’t know, gross, don’t worry about me. It’s gross when I think about it or talk about it, but when you are actually there having to deal with it, God gives you strength beyond your own. Hermana Escobar has never seen a mouse her whole mission and she keeps saying “When I get home I am going to be so creeped out because our house is full of them”. haha Then we got home the other night and i saw two mice in our house. She hasn’t seen them, so maybe I am crazy. But ya, haa I am glad I’m getting all the worst stuff out of the way in my first area. I seriously love it here and never want to leave. There are so many animals haha in our house we have the cockroaches, the ants, the lizards, gecko and her babies, and now Mickey and Minnie and Tina the chicken. Shoot we aren’t obeying the no pets rule very well.

I have never been around so many animals. Daily I see goats, horses, cows, everywhere pigs, chickens, cats, DOGS, birds, frogs, weird bugs. We have two parrots in our area that people have as pets. They say “hola” when you walk by and Saturday we saw a pet monkey!!! I died. It’s like the mission golden treasure, not everyone gets to see a monkey! It’s like everyone had babies overnight, because when I got here there were just big animals. And now, next to every grown up are two babies. It’s really cute. And all the butterflies hatched overnight. They are everywhere. It’s great! 

Ok, my New Year’s spiritual thought and then I will go. I was reading in the Liahona and a man was talking about growing up in Idaho and having potato and corn plants. They would rotate the fields every year. One day when he was plowing the corn area he found a beautiful potato plant. He called his dad over and asked what he should do. “Pull it” his dad said. “But dad, it’s so beautiful. It looks better than any of the plants in the potato field.”   “Pull it” his dad repeated, “this year it’s a weed!” I love it. He went on to say "When I consider all the things Heavenly Father would have me do in this life, doing them at the right TIME is as critical as doing them at all" I think that’s a great thought. As we begin a new year there are lots of great things you could do this year, but maybe for you this year they are a weed, there is something greater for you to be doing. I challenge you to look at your year and think of what you want to accomplish. What do you want to learn and where do you want to be next year? I promise, as you do, when you finish another year, you won’t look back with regret. You will feel accomplished and ready to face new challenges. I am grateful for this opportunity of new beginnings, new planner, new goals, new language and new country. Lot’s is different and I plan to make the most of it. 

I love you all, 

 

Happy New Year

Hermana Ball 

Small clip of Jenny presenting the 1st vision in Spanish

Feliz Navidad

Christmas is up at our house.
I also convinced Hermana Escobar to buy Christmas lights.
They were like $2 so we have them in our room.

This is us with a member.
 All the youth are so sweet and love to come with us on Sundays.
 It kind of slows us down, but I like it.  They help lots with Spanish.

This is our bathroom.
We really have it good!

Can You Believe Christmas is in 10 days !!!!!!!

 

This week Hermana Escobar and I worked on being better at planning. In the past it’s been hard because we make plans to see people and then they are never home. So this week we decided to make really good plans and back up plans and back up for our back up. Then after planning we would say a prayer and we would pray for each of the people individually and the specific miracle we wanted to happen in regards to that person. The next day it was amazing to see the miracles we asked for the night before come together. We didn’t always get the exact thing we prayed for but often we were surprised at the simplicity of the miracle, like someone just being home and listening to the message we had planned for them.

 

I have learned a lot this week about having faith that miracles do happen, and that a miracle isn’t only someone being raised from the dead. One miracle was that Hermana Escobar and I stopped to answer the phone and I looked down the street and there was a man looking at us and waving. He came closer and Hermana Escobar told me he was a new convert that didn’t come to church because of some health problems, he is kind of old. As we talked to him we realized how much he needed our attention and love. We arranged for a member of the ward to take him to church Sunday. It was a miracle to me as I watched him walk in to church with tears in his eyes and a smile on his face.

 

Another miracle this week was finding some amazing new investigators. One is an old woman Justina who is actually not new but someone we met with the first day we were here and decided to stop seeing because her and her daughter-in-law had heard all the lessons but still weren’t progressing and they had started accepting lessons from a Jehovah Witness woman. They are kind of intense and we just didn’t feel good going. Anyway, after one of our amazing planning sessions we thought about her and decided to go the next day. When we got to her house we both thought ummm maybe we shouldn’t go, but we said a prayer and decided to go anyway. We showed her EL ES LA DADIVA (I feel dumb, I spelled that wrong last week-it’s because the way I spelled it is how I always say it and Hermana Escobar has to correct me, but it doesn’t matter because no one here knows what that means. We always have to say dadiva significa regalo.) Anyway we showed the video and she loved it and we had a good lesson and we invited her to be baptized and she started talking about how she knows that her baptism before wasn’t good and she needs to again but she never said a for sure yes but.... we went and picked her up Sunday and she came to church!!!! It was great because we haven’t had an investigator at church since my first Sunday. She was so into Relief Society, she kept answering questions and things..... and also we heard a member talking to her and she asked if she understands Spanish and she said not really, so we think that may have been the problem in the past. She didn’t know what we were saying!!! So we are going to take a member with us the next time we visit her and we are going to get her committed to a date. She was smiling so big the whole ride home and I could tell she felt The Spirit. PS: we got the president of Roma to take us to get her in his CAR. I haven’t been in a car in forever. It was so fun, but I found myself feeling frustrated because if we could have even bikes we could get around so much faster. It takes us like 40 min to walk to her house and in a car it was like 10 min.

 

Ugh and this week we started focusing on different neighborhoods. We go to a different area each day and we keep finding more and more that is a part of our area. It’s crazy how big our area is. We went to Pendty again and we found out there is a place past it called Placido that is ours too! So many people to teach. It’s just hard because we take so much time getting there we don’t get to teach as much. The day we went there we only taught two lessons and the rest of the time we were contacting and walking so that’s why this week I just keep wanting a bike. haha But Hermana Escobar doesn’t want to ask the president because she says she doesn’t know how to ride one. haha I love her so much.

 

Oh, that’s the other thing. Last week I felt so bad because I had a million emails and her family didn’t even write her, only her trainer’s mom. So I was thinking maybe some of you could write her something short this week. Just say hi. Her email is sonia.escobar at myldsmail.net.... I know she would love it.

 

So anyway, this week was just another week in good old hot Paraguay. It’s really hot now that we are into December. It also rained this week a lot which is almost worse because after it rains it gets really hot, but for the 30 min of rain, it’s perfect.

 

I love the structure of the schedule of mission life. I was thinking about it last night, I have never been so motivated in my life. I love knowing exactly what I need to be doing when. I never feel like I am wasting time. It’s great. 

 

The only other major thing this week was that I was asked to speak Sunday on our last week in the Roma 1 chapel. It was really hard for me 10 of solo me speaking Spanish. I mostly read what Hermana Escobar helped me prepare. The amazing thing was my reading is getting so much better and my pronunciation. After the talk lots of people said they loved my message which made me feel good that they could even understand my message. It was about how you don’t need to have a missionary tag to bring others to the gospel. haha One girl told me the first week when you bore your testimony was terrible. I didn’t know what you said at all, but today I could understand it all. I think that was a compliment but it kind of hurt my feelings at the same time. haha They are really blunt here some things people say to me a lot “You have gained a lot of weight since you got here. You are getting kind of fat. Don’t you guys walk a lot?” Well, maybe don’t feed me so much, ahah their portions here are so crazy. The members feed us a lot which is awesome since they don’t really eat dinner here you just have to stuff yourself at lunch and wait for breakfast.  “Why are you so sweaty??” umm because it’s hot!! “What’s that red thing on your face???” A zit. I know I’m really sweaty, so I keep breaking out. haha I love them, though. They ask those things because they are truly worried about your well-being. ha

 

Anyway, can you believe how close Christmas is!!! I am really stoked. We got an email today saying we can call from Sunday to Christmas, any day we want. We get 40 min and it’s skype. I don’t really know how the skype works. I hope Hermana Escobar does... so I need to know what day is best and what time for you .I was thinking I can call mom for 20 and dad for 20. I don’t know which day is best for you. We don’t email next Monday. We just get on to see what you said and then we call. So I need to know what time. That’s really the most important part. I don’t know the time difference, so can you figure that out?? I need mom and dad to talk and figure it all out because it is stressing me out thinking about it. I don’t get computers and I don’t know how it’s all going to go, so we just have to hope it all works out ok!!! 

 

I love you all so much and can’t wait to see your faces. 

 

oxox

Hermana Ball

El es la Davida!!!!!!

Ok, first things first, I need to clarify something about Hermana Escobar. Everyone seems to think she is this mean trainer and I don’t want that at all. At first we didn’t really understand each other’s language and culture plus fear of new things, she has never trained before. Anyway after three weeks together we are best friends, truly. She helps me so much with the language and I help her with confidence, I hope, I don’t know…  Something I have learned is missionaries aren’t magically perfect people and so it’s perfect. We both just help each other with our weakness and it’s great. I love her sooo much. This week was her one year in the mission, it was way fun celebrating that. Today is my two month’s, can you believe it!!

Ok, now this week was really hard... there is a holiday, well it’s actually today, the 8th of Diciembre, called “The Virgin of Ca A Cupe”. It’s this huge statue of Mary in a city, ummm, I’m not sure which direction, but I don’t think it’s too far from here. Hermana Escobar served there and loved it. When I first saw a pic of the statue I thought it was Christ, like the one in Brazil, that’s what it looks like, but it’s actually Mary. Anyway everyone leaves their homes and jobs to make a pilgrimage to Ca A Cupe every year. It’s been really hard because most people are fairly religious here but are really open to what we have to say. But this whole week when they realize that we aren’t Catholic they are like “Nope, we don’t want to talk to you. We believe in the Virgin!!!” or when we ask “Can we pass by Monday?”, “Nope, Mary will be here so you can’t come.” Each time I told Hermana Escobar it’s ok. People need to be mean to us every once in a while so we know what it’s like. But each day it seemed they got ruder and ruder the closer today got.

Wednesday we had exchanges with the sister training leaders and it was really hard in lots of ways. First off, I had to navigate us to the investigators’ homes. That in itself was a huge miracle! The other thing was that it was really hard to teach with someone I had never practiced or really ever met before. The whole day I kept thinking and realizing to appreciate Hermana Escobar and everything she does for me. At the end of the day when I finally saw her again we just hugged and I wanted to cry and never let anyone take her from me again!!! The best part was she felt the same way or at least that’s what she told me... jaja Anyway, the one thing about the sister training leader was she was good luck. Everyone that never seems to be home, was, and they received us and it was great. We had a lesson with Pedro and he recommitted to a new date.

A while back we got a referral to a part of our area that’s really, really far away. The farthest we go is Las Mercedes and I wanna die. It’s like 4 kilometers there and then in total after making our whole loop it’s like 10 or 11. But Pindty is 6 just to get there so then 6 back and also walking around so in total it was going to be like 14 kilometers.  I don’t really know what that means, I just know that walking on these roads in the hot sun really takes a toll on you. But I am learning to smile even when I am soooo hot. I read a talk this week about missionary work and Elder Ballard said don’t just walk around like robots saying hi to everyone. That’s how I am. I am sooo tired and hot! So I am learning to smile and be happy, even when I am hot. 

Anyway we decided that we need to go to the far-away place. We keep meaning to go and then something goes wrong, like it rains or I don’t know, we just talk each other out of it. We keep waiting for a member to take us, but he is always busy, so finally we decide to go Friday. But, like always, things start to go wrong. The zone leaders need us to submit numbers. We don’t have the numbers, we had to go home and then go to the cyber, the internet place I am at now, and then enter them. So we got off to a late start - half way there we are so tired and we don’t wanna go any farther and we start thinking maybe we won’t go today. Then Hermana Escobar is like “No we are going to always come up with a reason not to go.” So we got up and sang hymns and laughed and practiced Spanish and before we knew it we were there. It didn’t even feel like that far of a walk. We start contacting, we knew there was someone there that really needed us.

The first person is like “Ya I´m Catholic” and he was just kind of being rude. We were like thanks and left. Then we come to a lady and she says “si... esta bien passar otro dia?” (yes, come back another day)  uhhhh It’s not like this is super far away from where we live. Sure, we can come back another day...  Then I said we need to say a prayer because I really want to find someone here.. So we do and we haven’t even taught a lesson all day and it’s like 4 by now. My comp is like “Ok, we are teaching a lesson at the next house!”

So we walk up and it’s a lady and two kids and they are all sitting drinking mate and she just motions for us to come. We sit down all sweaty and she offers us water and things are going great. I compliment her garden and her house and then … I didn’t really know what happened. Hermana Escobar explained later that she thought we were with this group of kids that come and learn Spanish and do humanitarian work. But Hermana Escobar explains no we are missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ..... then all I see is her jumping up Mormones and spills her pitcher of water, kicks her hat under the table, almost falls over her chair, all the time saying I DON’T WANNA TALK TO YOU!  I don’t want to talk to any Mormons. We believe in the virgin. Get out of my house.... soooo we awkwardly get up and I´m like buen dia.  hahahaha Then we leave hahah and I just start laughing sooo hard, to keep from crying probably. hahah It was so funny. She just turned on us like that. Needless to say, the next two lessons weren’t quite that bad but you could tell they were just thinking about the virgin the whole time. One lady said “Yaaa we are all having a party Sunday for the virgin so I can’t come to church with you. I will be at my church for the virgin! ah It got so annoying. It’s like the one time of the year that everyone is super actively going to the Catholic churches. Anyway, then we planned to find our contact, but when we started that way hahah.

I don’t even know how to explain this but there was a man on a horse and Hermana Escobar is just sitting there writing in her planner and the man has a rope tied around the horns of a cow... I am learning so much about animals. I thought only bulls had horns but like every cow here has horns and they are all female. I don’t get it. Anyway his son is hitting the cow with a stick and yelling. Apparently the man on the horse is yelling “Get out of here, it’s dangerous”. Hermana Escobar is like it’s just a cow. We need to go that way. hahahah I am like ummm I think we need to move.... finally she sees that the cow is jumping everywhere crazy and running right at us. Ok so every house has a fence and the cow was running all over the road and the sides so I was scared to just stand on the side and hope it passed us. So we start running down the road away from this crazy cow and every time we would stop running and look back, it would stop. Then the man and the horse and the cow and the kid with a stick would be running again so we would have to run for our life again because there was nowhere to go but back down the road!! It was sooo embarrassing. One time I really thought we were going to die. They seemed so close and the cow was running so fast and Hermana Escobar was so slow. I was about to leave her. hahha I look over and this whole family is just watching from their porch, two girls in dresses running from this crazy cow. They don’t offer to let us in their yard. They just watch as we try and run away. It was seriously so terrifying. Anyway, needless to say, we left Pindty feeling a little discouraged, but I know that the Lord needed us there for some reason and we are going back Wednesday. I know that we will find someone waiting for the gospel there. 

Ok, I hope you all have been watching and sharing He is the Gift. It is so amazing. We share it in every lesson, so I have watched it a million times. Each time I am filled with a spirt and love of Christmas! They always ask if we get to go home for Christmas and they feel so bad when we say no, we are here... but that video brings the spirit instantly to every lesson!

After a really hard week we had high hopes that Pedro and others would come to church. We had 4 with a date to be baptized so they needed to come to keep their date. The elders have been having the same problem getting people to church so we all shared our investigators’ names with each other and prayed for each one individually. Sunday came and we get to church and no one’s investigators came. Not one. The elders hunted down a boy from one of their families, but that was all. It was really hard. I was feeling really, really bad and church is always hard because they only speak Guadani so I never have a clue at all what’s going on. But in Relief Society we all had to go around and say our testimony. When it came to me I just started bawling, looking around at these 10 women in this little classroom in a church in Paraguay, speaking two languages I don’t know. I just said it was really hard for me to decide to serve a mission and be away from my family. I didn’t realize how hard it is until I was here, but I know that this church is true and that’s why I am here. (it probably didn’t really come out like that, but that’s what I tried to say). I just started crying so hard as I listened to everyone’s testimony in this psycho language because I could feel the truth even though I couldn’t understand. The woman sitting next to me, who I love a lot, was going to be sealed Saturday and when they announced it I was sooo excited! They have two little kids that are so sweet and I kept thinking of the missionaries that baptized them. One of the women I love feeds us every Friday. After Relief Society she grabbed me and hugged me and told me she knows it’s really hard but she loves me so much and I am like her daughter (she reminds me a lot of Dianna Greene).  I just was filled with a love of my members. All Sunday I kept thinking of how amazing they are. They all love us missionaries so much. They feed us and accept us in their homes so much. Anyway, then I go in to sacrament meeting and they announce that our building is being expanded. They are starting in one week and I just cried and cried because I know that the Lord loves his children in Paraguay so much. We seriously have the smallest church ever. Our Relief Society room is just one of those tiny classrooms. We had 95 in attendance at church on Sunday and my whole heart was filled with love for each of them. 

Sunday night we found an amazing woman, Elba. After another hard day we were just trying to get our contacts and we felt we should share the video, which turned in to sharing el Libro de Mormon. It was so cool. She accepted a date, not at first. She said she was baptized already and then we explained to her and she said that makes so much sense!!!!! and accepted a date and el libro de Mormon. In her prayer she thanked the Lord for sending us. We left feeling sooo hopeful and thinking that even though this week was really hard there are moments and lessons that go perfect. And that’s what we are here for. Each time we have someone that is mean we think we just have to work that much harder to find the one waiting for us. I truly believe Elba was waiting for us! After one really hard lesson Hermana Escobar just wanted to sit down and cry. I told her that during the lesson I always think about their conversion story. The lady’s niece was listening. I told Hermana Escobar that one day that little girl would say “I remember the first missionaries came when I was at my aunt’s house. They were really happy and gave me candy. I remember my aunt laughed at them and I felt really bad. Years later two Elders came to my house and I let them in. As they taught me, the truth filled my heart and I remembered those first sisters who bore similar testimony. I will always be grateful for them.” haha  We don’t have real conversion stories yet, so we make them up. But that’s what I always think about. You never know how the gospel will come to someone. 

Lastly I want to FOLLOW UP on my challenge to do the 30 day Scripture Question (see the entry in November titled “If Elle Wood Can Get In”).  Are you doing it? The most important part is writing it down. This one thing has been the main faith builder for me since I have been here. Each day when I am struggling and I think maybe I don’t even have a testimony, I ask my Father in Heaven and I am always answered. It’s crazy because some days I turn to the same page as the day before and I think “ugh, I have been here before”. But I start reading and I find my new answer a few verses below the other. Or, sometimes, I ask a question and my answer has nothing to do with what I asked. It’s like the spirit is saying “That’s not really what you needed today, here is your real answer.” I know that all of your answers are found in the scriptures. I know that God listens to our prayers. I have learned that so much these past two months. I feel your prayers so strong and I hope you feel mine. I love you all and I hope you all

ACCEPT the gift Christ brings. Accept His commandments, His love, His guidance in our life. 

Love, a missionary doing her best to serve the Lord in Paraguay,

 

Hermana Ball

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas

So I feel way dumb for thinking when I wrote last week that I had missed Thanksgiving. After reading all the emails I realized I hadn’t. haha But good news is my district leader is not so dead to the world and he arranged for us as a district to go out to eat Wed night. I will hopefully have time to send more pictures. It was way good. It was like some kind of burrito(they don’t really eat much food like that here) so it was a good change of pace. On real Thanksgiving my comp, who had never heard of it before, and I had chicken stuffing I made from a box from Charlsie, raw potatoes, haha (I tried to make mashed potatoes in the microwave, but it didn’t work) and bread. It was great. haha I told her she had to say what she was thankful for and she said me and I just started crying so hard because I didn’t even realize how much I missed all of you till she said that and it made me feel good that someone was happy I am here.

I totally forgot to say last week my greatest blessing!!! so when our President got to the mission he was not pleased with the conditions of the pentions and he has been working hard to get new pentions for us to live in. They have changed almost all of them. The week before I got here ours changed and my comp says the old one had twice as many cockroaches. She thinks the ones we have came in the move. ugggg haha Anyway, our pention is nice and...... we have an air conditioner in our bedroom!!!!!!! It is heaven when we come home soooo sweaty we sometimes just sit in that room. haaha One day we were so hot after walking back from zone conference (30 min there and back) we just ate lunch on our beds ha. But ya it’s really nice. Also all the faucets here are just one temp. You don’t have two faucets even when you are showering. I was telling my comp that I’m not use to the cold showers and she just looked at me so weird. “Did I not tell you about the light switch?” “What light switch????” ummmm She proceeds to tell me there is a magic light switch that makes the water hot!!! hahah She said she is just use to cold showers so she forgets to turn it on.. haha Anyway, so if you were feeling bad for me, don’t. I have cool air at night and a hot shower in the morning. When I shower at night I don’t turn it on, though, because it’s soo hot. You have to shower before bed or its so gross. You will see why after seeing the pictures of my feet

I forgot also to mention the rain. It rained twice my first week and three times this week or two (I can’t remember). Anyway I have never seen anything like it. Leading up to rain it is so hot and there are no clouds and then they come and it just starts pouring rain, like buckets and buckets of rain and all of a sudden the whole road is a river. It’s crazy! It rained last night, so now the whole road is full of puddles. I love it. The first time it rained it was in the afternoon and we had to walk home at 8:30. I kept jumping in all the puddles and getting all muddy. haha My comp just thought I was crazy. hahah It’s hard for me not to act crazy sometimes, like one time we were walking and the Macarena music came on. I started to dance and she looked at me and said Hermana we are representatives of Christ. ha So I have to remember that sometimes. Most of the time it’s not hard to remember, just sometimes, like when I want to play with the kids .... 

So to help my pronunciation she makes me read from El Libro de Mormon with a pencil in my mouth repeating after her. This is after I have already read it for 30 min on my own. It’s so hard and my jaw starts to really hurt, so if you want to feel like a big looser put a pencil in your mouth and try to read Spanish its hard and entertaining. 

This week we kind of got a little discouraged because every lesson seems to go the same except for the fact that each lesson I feel more confident to say more in the next. So this is pretty much how each lesson goes: we walk to a house, we may know them or may not, clap, they come or we just smile and wave because most the time they are outside all ready, they open the gate, let us in, pull up two chairs, offer us terere (Cold Mate), we tell them no, and then we talk to them a little, get to know them. They are always so chatty. Most of the time they don’t even give us a chance to say we are missionaries. Then finally we bring it in to the convo (AHHH it just started raining again!! hahah I am so happy. My comp said we should bring our umbrellas with, but I talked her out of it. She just looked at me ahhh we will be wet! haha) anyway, then she asks if we can sing. Yep we sing a hymn every lesson in Spanish, no piano, while they stare at us. At first it was hard for me but lately we sing Christmas hymns and I love it. One time they gave us this fruit to eat and I really didn’t want to eat it because they just picked it off the ground, anyway, I put it in my mouth and I had never seen anything like it before. It’s like an orange ball and I am trying to chew and there is a pit and I just keep swirling it around in my mouth. At this moment my trainer says “Let’s sing.” So I sing a whole hymn with this huge pit in my mouth and then when no one was looking I quickly put it in my hand and sat it on the ground next to me. Next we ask to pray and usually they want my comp to say it, which is great. ha But sometimes I say it and I am pretty sure they don’t understand, that’s ok. Then we share the first lesson or sometimes the second, depending, and when it’s the first I say the first vision and sometimes I say it right and mostly I say it wrong. But its magic because the Spirit is always there and I can feel it so strong and we lead them into the baptism invitation and they say “No, I have already been baptized (did you listen to what we said? It didn’t count. It wasn’t necessary. You were a baby ugh) and then we bear a beautiful testimony and the Spirit is there and I tear up because all I can think is they are going to say yes, I know it and I picture their family in the church. We ask again and they just stare at us and don’t answer. It’s so weird. Actually throughout the whole lesson we ask questions like what does the atonement mean to you and they just look at us and say nothing. It’s so weird. I don’t know why some people answer, but for the most part they don’t. Anyway, then we ask if we can come again and share more and we invite them to church and 50 percent say yes and then we give them a pamphlet to read. We say “Can we provide any service for you today?” and they always say “No, I have lots of kids to help me.” and then we ask them to pray (after explaining prayer) and they say they don’t know how and we explain again and then we ask again and they stare at us like we never asked a question. Finally one of us offers and we leave and I want to die. Lots of the time I think the lesson went great and I am like whaoooo they are coming to church and my comp is so discouraged. Anyway that’s how it goes. Oh, I forgot. When we ask if we can come back, they always say “We can see Christ in you girls. We love what you are doing here. I bet lots of people turn you away. We will always receive you in our home, feed you, listen to you, but we have our own church we go to on Sunday. I read the bible every day. My family is all Catholic, this really is not for us. 

It’s really hard. We never know who is worth going to see a second time because we never know if they are going to progress. Anyway, we had one golden investigator, Pedro, and he was all set to be baptized this coming Saturday. He just needed to go to church one more time. We have taught him everything, he has accepted all the commandments. We get to church Sunday and no one comes. No one. We invited 18 people to church and no one came, not even Pedro. I felt soo bad. When we call him he doesn’t answer. We don’t know what we are going to do. We just have to remember that when we are rejected they are rejecting Christ, not us. It’s just hard because everyone seems to be so religious. One man asked me this week, “If I came to you and said will you be baptized in the Catholic Church would you?”  I thought he was asking what I knew about the Catholic Church and in bad Spanish I said I would need to be able to speak better Spanish to answer that. He started laughing but apparently my comp told him that if God told her to, she would. I thought that was a good answer. That man we were trying to contact said we could come to his house anytime but if we want to share messages from the Bible, like the ones before, he didn’t want to hear it. It was really weird. We were like “Aren’t you Catholic? Don’t you believe in the Bible! The people here are so confusing!!!

I like it though. The more we teach, the more people know us. It’s crazy how much people already know. We say our name and they say “Mormones, ya I know you guys.” and most have listened to missionaries before. When we walk down the street I recognize so many people and we always wave and they are so nice and polite to us. I love it here. I love how laid back the people are and friendly and willing to listen. 

One thing that is hard, we will teach two different families that live pretty far apart and then we go to one’s house and the other family is there. This happened last night. We went to Pedro’s house to see why he didn’t come to church and his sister, who accepted a date but also didn’t come to church, was outside with a woman we had taught this week and also invited to church. They both said sit and we did. Then when we tried to share a lesson they wouldn’t even look at us. This morning I was reading in John when Peter denies Christ. That’s what I felt like. I was like, earlier this week you loved us, what happened!! 

I love it in Paraguay, though. It’s so beautiful and out in the compo there is this sweet smell in the air. It always sounds like the 4th of July fireworks go off day and night all over. haha Sometimes it makes me jump because they sound like they are right next to you. 

Ahh, this is such a long letter and I haven’t got to the best part. The church campaign for Christmas is “He is the gift”. The video is so great, watch it! We are sharing it with everyone. We carry this old crappy dvd player and show it in every lesson. It is so powerful. You should all share it on Facebook with your testimony. 

 I love how it’s so hot but it’s still Christmas. There are nativities and lights on houses and they will have like a tree in the front yard with ornaments and tinsel. haha I love it. 

I love you all. Sorry if this is so scatter brained. 

Hermana Ball

Doing the pronunciation exercise

My desk

Our kitchen

Look How Tan I Am!

Just Kidding.  This is after washing them.

Thanksgiving with the district

Us smelling the sweet smell of Paraguay

The meal I made for us.

My first zone conference.  I had no idea what was happening.

We made the cake that Charlsie sent and inside the oven all the cockroaches burned.  It was gross!!